The present invention concerns a device for the heat treatment of small products and in particular sausages.
The invention is particularly suitable in the context of co-extruded sausages. Such sausages comprise a core of food products and an external film consisting of a gel, for example of the alginate or collagen type.
Such sausages are produced continuously and cut to length before heat treatment. They may also be produced in a string without separation from one another.
For the sausage thus cut to hold together, it passes through a stream of hot water so as to stabilise the gel and coagulate the surface proteins.
The sausage thus solidified on the surface can then be handled more easily without risk of deterioration of its surface appearance.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,931 and the document WO-A-2011/107496 disclose heat-treatment devices.